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The brand makes a difference...

FZ1inTX

FZ1inTX

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How many of you have noticed a poor running bike after a fillup? How many have had the chance to immediately compare with another rider?

I typically get my fuel at a Mobil or Shell station. My bike has been running superb since the Arrow headers, velocity stacks and Graves map. Yesterday, Michele and I took off on the FZ1's and headed to the White Mountains (That would be "hills" to you folks near the Rockies.) We were full with Shell fuel. No problems! 122 miles later, we filled them up in Lincoln, NH at a Tedeshi station. We then headed off on 112 known as the Kancamagus Highway here... our "Little Dragon" with 32 miles of various curves. After reaching the other side and headed back home, I chatted with Michele in the Scala headset.... I asked if her bike felt a little "off" and she said it did... I described it as a slight stutter at any throttle position. She agreed that her bike felt the same.

Now, I work in IT for a wholesale energy company. We are the ports/terminals/racks that fill the trucks that deliver to homes, stations, businesses, municpals, etc... I know first hand that all the gas coming in is the same. Each company that places an order has their private additives put into the truck with the fuel. This is called "rack-blended" and allows us to service any station with their special mixture. Exxon, Shell, Mobil, Texaco, BJ's Wholesale, BP, etc.... they all do not have their own supplies here so they buy from a company like the one I work for and pay to have their additives blended in as the truck fills.

Based on this, I wonder what the heck Tedeshi has blended into their fuels? And who do they get it from?

And before you ask, my company is the middle-man. We make the same margin of profit no matter the price of oil. We do not, in any way, drive the market price. ;)

What are your findings on stations? Had a bad experience with a tank from an unfamiliar place?
 
Not altitude? From what I hear from my buddies in the oil business is that any gas station can sell gas from any producer at any time. Exxon may be selling gas refined in a Shell refinery. Shell may be selling gas refined at a BP plant. ....and so on. The only difference between Wal-Mart gas and Shell is the additives the big companies add to what they place in their pumps.

I have certainly bought gas from stations with water and other contaminants in their reservoirs. That can certainly screw you up.

** EDIT ** well I am a retard and should have read more than the first sentence. ;)

That station may just have some contaminants rather than all gas from those stations being bad.
 
I've been waiting for a thread like this. I've had that exact same problem with different brand fuels. I have found that when I fill up at the local "no name" guy down the block, my bike runs crappier and I don't achieve the same MPG. When I go to my station of choice, Shell, I never have issues, and the bike runs excellent. I love Shell gas even if it's 20 cents more than the next guy, and it's the only thing I use now if I can help it. If I'm up on the mountain I only have access to Mobil and can use that as well. I stay away from Valero's and had a really bad experience with Sunoco and BP, so I stay away from those.
 
We must be getting a better quality of gasoline in the midwest. I haven't encountered any problems from the majors and the privates. So far I bought from Shell, BP, Thornton, Hucks, Freedom, EZ Go, Casey, Fast-Fill, Kroger and 7 11. I haven't tried Mobil because there isn't one nearby.
 
Most likely just a poorly maintained service station with either some water or sediment in the tanks. EPA regs today are so tight, and infraction costs so severe, that what comes out of the refinery is at spec, but a lot can happen in storage tanks, pipelines, tanker trucks, and service station tanks. Personally I've never had an issue with fuel I've purchased. (Overseas is another story as some cheating/dilution occurs in Third World countries by the distributors and service stations).

Before all the tight EPA regs (say, 30 years ago) a lot of the regular grade fuel coming out of refiners was iffy but that is no longer the case. And back then many people swore that Exxon fuel made their cars run poorly, but there was a simple reason for that. Exxon had the best run refineries and instrumentation at the time so if the standard said 87 octane that is what you got, no more/no less. Other refiners had to run a product that was always above 87 octane to cover the dips in octane in some of their fuel run, so the motorist usually got 'free' octane. Exxon didn't become the largest profit oil company by giving away octane, that's profit going out somebody's tailpipe. Again, times have changed and refiners are essentially turning out good product according to the specs for the market they are making it for.

I ran our SUV through South Dakota last week and came upon an odd set of blends. Regular was 85.5, Mid grade was 87, Premium was 91 octane. I've not seen a regular octane level so low, so I switched up to the mid-grade. Just a quirk in SD, I suppose.
 
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I'm guessing you got 93...its everywhere in NH.

I'm also guessing that station sees pretty much nothing by mini-vans headed to storyland! I'm guessing the gas is just old and full of condensate.
 
Evitzee said:
Most likely just a poorly maintained service station with either some water or sediment in the tanks. EPA regs today are so tight, and infraction costs so severe, that what comes out of the refinery is at spec, but a lot can happen in storage tanks, pipelines, tanker trucks, and service station tanks. Personally I've never had an issue with fuel I've purchased. (Overseas is another story as some cheating/dilution occurs in Third World countries by the distributors and service stations).

Before all the tight EPA regs (say, 30 years ago) a lot of the regular grade fuel coming out of refiners was iffy but that is no longer the case. And back then many people swore that Exxon fuel made their cars run poorly, but there was a simple reason for that. Exxon had the best run refineries and instrumentation at the time so if the standard said 87 octane that is what you got, no more/no less. Other refiners had to run a product that was always above 87 octane to cover the dips in octane in some of their fuel run, so the motorist usually got 'free' octane. Exxon didn't become the largest profit oil company by giving away octane, that's profit going out somebody's tailpipe. Again, times have changed and refiners are essentially turning out good product according to the specs for the market they are making it for.

I ran our SUV through South Dakota last week and came upon an odd set of blends. Regular was 85.5, Mid grade was 87, Premium was 91 octane. I've not seen a regular octane level so low, so I switched up to the mid-grade. Just a quirk in SD, I suppose.
Click to expand...

Very informative :)

I've seen the same octane levels in Utah & Colorado
 
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I notice the differences quite a bit. I look for running/performance and mpgs as the two most important things to me.

1. Shell: I dunno but here in AZ I have yet to get a good tank of Shell gas. Both performance and mpg are about middle of the road, maybe even below average on both counts. I typically avoid it

2. Chevron: I like the performance but the mpg is probably one of the lowest for me.

3. Mobil/AMPM (not sure if these are the same but their pumps seems to be): Get the best MPG but after a couple of tanks I get a lot of low end bogging down.

4. Valero: quickly becoming my favorite, good mpg and good performance. Problem is there seems to be variability to it. Occasionally will get a bad tank but overall is good gas.
 
Evitzee said:
Most likely just a poorly maintained service station with either some water or sediment in the tanks. EPA regs today are so tight, and infraction costs so severe, that what comes out of the refinery is at spec, but a lot can happen in storage tanks, pipelines, tanker trucks, and service station tanks. Personally I've never had an issue with fuel I've purchased. (Overseas is another story as some cheating/dilution occurs in Third World countries by the distributors and service stations).

Before all the tight EPA regs (say, 30 years ago) a lot of the regular grade fuel coming out of refiners was iffy but that is no longer the case. And back then many people swore that Exxon fuel made their cars run poorly, but there was a simple reason for that. Exxon had the best run refineries and instrumentation at the time so if the standard said 87 octane that is what you got, no more/no less. Other refiners had to run a product that was always above 87 octane to cover the dips in octane in some of their fuel run, so the motorist usually got 'free' octane. Exxon didn't become the largest profit oil company by giving away octane, that's profit going out somebody's tailpipe. Again, times have changed and refiners are essentially turning out good product according to the specs for the market they are making it for.

I ran our SUV through South Dakota last week and came upon an odd set of blends. Regular was 85.5, Mid grade was 87, Premium was 91 octane. I've not seen a regular octane level so low, so I switched up to the mid-grade. Just a quirk in SD, I suppose.
Click to expand...

I just went through CO and loved their gas. One reason I'm assuming is they don't have to use as much ethanol in their blends. Also they had 85 or 86 octane which my bike seemed to love for mpg. In AZ lowest you can get is 87 and most of it has 10-15% ethanol in their blends.
 
Ssky0078 said:
3. Mobil/AMPM (not sure if these are the same but their pumps seems to be): Get the best MPG but after a couple of tanks I get a lot of low end bogging down.
Click to expand...

AM/PM brand is owned by BP America so it is not affiliated with Mobil in any way. Depending on location the gas may be the same (except for the additive package).

It is no secret that Exxon and Mobil are one and the same company (since 1999)......sometimes you'll see a Mobil station and then down the block you'll see an Exxon, but it is the same company. I doubt the public actually realizes that. Even though ExxonMobil is the largest oil company in the world there are huge swaths of the US that they don't market in. From the Central Coast in CA (Atascadero, CA) there is not a drop of Exxon or Mobil gas all the way north to the Canadian border. And if you drive I-10 from CA to Texas you have to be clever to make it all the way with Exxon and Mobil fuel....there are a couple of long stretches in AZ and NM that are sparingly served by them. The only reason I know is I get a big 10% discount as an ex-employee.....but that's something like 35 or 40 cents a gallon so it is worth searching them out if they are available. For me they are the cheapest fuel available.
 
I always leave my fuel stops to the last bum-clenching moment so I don't usually get to pick where I fill. I track every fuel up of every bike I own and there's never any conclusive data between gas stations

I also learned long ago to disable my butt dyno because it's a load of shit. Pun intended ;) Perceived changes are merely your mind playing tricks, I think
 
Where I am, Casey's General Stores are everywhere. They are usually clean and reasonable in price on gas and beverages/snacks. Riding with my wife, a clean bathroom is way more important than how the gas performs in her Ninja 250r, so we stop at Casey's almost all the time. I haven't noticed any problems other than an occational slight surging at idle before it warms up. (Usually less than 1-2 minutes or around 130-150 deg).

My mileage on my own rides is about 35-36 mpg, but with the wife, I get 38-40 mpg. I get gas many other places. I'm sticking with the 87 and not noticed any problems. :dontknow:
 
I mostly fill up at Wal-Mart. After that I just get the cheapest stuff I can find. I never have any issues. Houston, being a refinery meca, may just have good gas no matter what you buy.
 
As BDazzler said, Casey's isn't bad and I get gas whenever that blinking light goes on usually it takes 3 to 3.5 gallons of 87 octane with up to 15% ethanol at that point. I'm starting to get 37 to 42 mpg on average with no surging or faltering. No, I am not babying the bike as I still like to accelerate strongly and tend to ride in the 70+mph a lot on the highways (I stay off the Interstate as much as possible).
 
My buddy who work next door to me top off his Kia Soul at the same gas station that he always use here in West Palm Beach, Sunoco I believe. On the way back the car started to run really crappy. He barely made it back to work and by the time he was here the car wouldn't start. So we dump a whole bottle of Seafoam, floor and crank it. Finally started but wasn't running good. He was getting like 10 MPG. He finally brought it to the dealership.

Long story short and $600 later... they had to drain the fuel tank and put fresh gas. 4 gals out of the 10 gals he had left was water!!! He went back to the gas station with his receipt and the attendant was like "you put gas on Monday... get in line over there!"

The fuel rig was filled with water... and contaminate there tank!

So basically, shit happen!
 
Try to use stations that are very busy - due to location. Sometimes a small, out of the way station - if it gets a bad load of gas (watered) it will take quite a while for it to empty and be refilled with good. I've suffered from this situation before.
Water does end up in some tanks - most likely due to less than honest distributors - or even drivers!

And if you got high octane gas, that will lower performance a little --- as will extra ethanol that you are not accustomed too.
There are a number of variables. But the water thing is the most insidious and potentially most debilitating.

One of those watered down loads of gas nearly stranded me and my 10 year old son in a car 800 miles from home. It took every thing I could do to get the thing sort of running - including pushing it by hand! A nightmare it was - immediately after a fill up from an out of the way station in the mountains of North Carolina.

Different stations can make a big difference.
 
Dustin said:
I always leave my fuel stops to the last bum-clenching moment so I don't usually get to pick where I fill. I track every fuel up of every bike I own and there's never any conclusive data between gas stations

I also learned long ago to disable my butt dyno because it's a load of shit. Pun intended ;) Perceived changes are merely your mind playing tricks, I think
Click to expand...

:+2:

I do a lot of miles per year and have exactly the same conclusion. On my long trips I usually just make it to a gas station so no possibility to be picky but I never had any problem with gas in the 35k miles I did in the US.
The butt dyno is useless, not possible to calibrate, it's all day to day performance changes of you ;).
 
This is a well used station (one of two that are the start of a 34 mile stretch) and I only ever put 87 octane in the bikes.

I also know to never stop at a station that is receiving fuel. Them filling the tanks disturbs the crap in the bottom.

Also, did you know that filling in the early AM hours when the fuel is the coolest gets you more fuel in the tank? Gasoline expands a LOT! Getting cold fuel vs. warm fuel makes a big difference.

When a tanker is in port and piping the gas to the tank farm, the port is required to capture all vapors and clean the air. Did you know this equates to free fuel for the terminal? Those vapors are not metered when the fuel is delivered. You wouldn't believe the amount we get from a single delivery. :eek5: :tup:
 
Annnnnndddddd...... 3.86 gallons of Shell 87 Octane and the "Other Lady" is purring like a satisfied cat.... Even the idle was rough! That was a horrible tank of fuel... note to self, do NOT stop at that place again! I'll make sure I fill up at the other end or well before I get there.

You have to stop and wonder, at that moment, if something is really wrong with the bike or is it just the fuel.... so you play the game and pray the next tank make it all better. In my case, it did. :D
 
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